Justinian: Greatest Byzantine Emperor?

**WARNING: This episode contains explicit language and sexual content How did prostitution become so visible in medieval towns? How could sex work flourish, sometimes in the very same buildings as schools, churches and markets?Prostitutes were a familiar presence in medieval citi ...  Show more

Matt Lewis and guest Dr Eleanor Barraclough as they dive into the turbulent world of late 10th-century Scandinavia and the extraordinary life of Olaf Tryggvason. Exiled, enslaved, raider, and eventually king of Norway, Olaf was a force of nature in an age of shifting loyalties, p ...  Show more

A new book has come out about that most famous of Byzantines. It's called Justinian: Emperor, Soldier, Saint by Peter Sarris and it is excellent. It is not a dramatization of his career but a brilliantly researched account of his life and time in office.Track his evolving thinkin ...  Show more

How did Constantine the Great conquer his rivals and shape the Roman Empire?

Tristan Hughes discusses the dramatic rise of Roman Emperor Constantine I with Professor David Potter. They discuss the scandalous tales and strategic manoeuvres that defined Constantine's a ...

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas brought together under Justinian I, Byzantine emperor in the 6th century AD, which were rediscovered in Western Europe in the Middle Ages and became very influential in the development of laws in many European nations and elsewhere.WithCa ...  Show more

We restart the narrative with the death of the Emperor Anastasius and the accession of Justin, Count of the Excubitors. The new Emperor is decidedly orthodox and begins a persecution of the monophysites and heals the schism with Rome. We also introduce our sources for the period ...  Show more